Our History
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Facing a terminal disease “alone” can be devastating, especially without the support of a 24-hour care-giving system and the tender loving care from family and friends. As we all know, the major responsibility for care of a loved one who is dying is on the shoulders of the primary care giver, be it either the spouse or family - and that’s if he or she is lucky to have one.
Most dying individuals want to die in the comfort and familiarity of their own home. As a Hospice nurse for many years, I had to send quite a few dying individuals who only had a few months to live to a nursing home due to lack of a system in their home that would provide safe and adequate 24-hour care.The hospital could no longer care for them because death was not imminent, meaning expected within two weeks. Too often the dying person lived alone, with their spouse deceased and the grown children living out of town.
Another scenario that often played out was when the dying individual’s spouse was limited physically and/or emotionally, and unable to care for their loved one adequately on a 24-hour basis. So you see, despite resources in the community, there were people “falling through the cracks” who did not receive “end of life comfort care,” and being surrounded by the love of an extended surrogate family, in the home-like environment they so desired for their final weeks of life ... that is … until Crossroads House came to be!
There definitely was a need for a 24-hour “Comfort Care Home” in this community. After checking out other comfort homes in the Rochester area and in Geneseo, my dream began to take shape; the dream of facilitating this community to have their own Comfort Care Home for the dying, for the residents of Genesee and Wyoming counties, with no cost to the family. I brought this idea to my close friends and they gave me the much needed encouragement and support to go forward. I even recruited them to become members of the Board of Directors!
Most dying individuals want to die in the comfort and familiarity of their own home. As a Hospice nurse for many years, I had to send quite a few dying individuals who only had a few months to live to a nursing home due to lack of a system in their home that would provide safe and adequate 24-hour care.The hospital could no longer care for them because death was not imminent, meaning expected within two weeks. Too often the dying person lived alone, with their spouse deceased and the grown children living out of town.
Another scenario that often played out was when the dying individual’s spouse was limited physically and/or emotionally, and unable to care for their loved one adequately on a 24-hour basis. So you see, despite resources in the community, there were people “falling through the cracks” who did not receive “end of life comfort care,” and being surrounded by the love of an extended surrogate family, in the home-like environment they so desired for their final weeks of life ... that is … until Crossroads House came to be!
There definitely was a need for a 24-hour “Comfort Care Home” in this community. After checking out other comfort homes in the Rochester area and in Geneseo, my dream began to take shape; the dream of facilitating this community to have their own Comfort Care Home for the dying, for the residents of Genesee and Wyoming counties, with no cost to the family. I brought this idea to my close friends and they gave me the much needed encouragement and support to go forward. I even recruited them to become members of the Board of Directors!
